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Fade Effect versus Dissolve
Coming from years of experience on Final Cut, and now filled with a need to back up on my Avid chops, I have one question that’s been burning me for a while. When is it more appropriate to use the Fade Effect, as opposed to adding a dissolve to the beginning and end.
I’ll use the example of I have a lower third that needs to fade up for a second, stay on screen for five seconds, and then fade down for a second. In Final Cut, I’d just drop a dissolve on the titles. Since Avid doesn’t prevent you from doing the same (and since having a dissolve effect on the clip makes it more obvious when looking at it in the timeline) when, or why would it be more appropriate to use the Fade Effect or is it more of an issue of preference?
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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5 Replies
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As the fade effect utilises the opacity parameter within the title effect itself, it means you are only processing 1 effect rather than 2 or 3. So renders will be minutely faster using the fade effect. But that is really the only difference.
Oh and its also a little quicker to apply to to all your titles. Just select them all with the segment mode tool before you do it. Adding transition from in to out might be more cumbersome because you might want the transition at the beginning and end of the title aligned differently.
Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net -
Map Fade Effect to your keyboard and drive it around for awhile. You’ll see that it’s a lot faster than adding dissolves.
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I always use fades on titles or L3rds. If i remember right, on the old avid meridians the fades would be
real time where the dissolves you would have to render. So the habit just kind of stuck.Scott Cumbo
Editor
Broadway Video, NYC -
I can’t remember the exact technical details, but I seem to remember a tutorial online years ago where someone actually explained why when using anything with an alpha (i.e. a Title or a Matte) you should always use Fade Effect as opposed to a Dissolve. Fade Effect simply affects the Alpha (slowly turning if on/off effectively), whereas the dissolve affects both the Fill and Matte, making for a less ‘clean’ transition. He had examples, but I can’t seem to remember where it was anymore.
Ra-ey
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There is an advantage to using dissolves though :
when you come back to it to change duration, you immediately see the length of the effect
whereas calling up fade effect dialogue box displays latest used fade in and fade out durations
but not the particular durations for the fade effect you are on…
(the sentence is a little complicated, hope I am clear)
I find this little detail to be a real nuisance.
Don’t you all ?
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